Feed aggregator

Four of the most popular forest protection offset methodologies give excessive flexibility and discretionary space to project developers, resulting in exaggerated climate impacts and overestimation of carbon credits issued, a policy watchdog detailed in a summary report of academic research released Friday.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) and Washington Carbon Allowance (WCA) prices both increased this week despite volume going in opposite directions, while traders said regulatory drivers in the former market and heightened permit demand in the latter were behind the gains.

California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) values dipped on Thursday afternoon to more than reverse a brief early-week rally, as traders said state regulator ARB’s extended timeline for implementing more ambitious carbon intensity (CI) reduction targets will come under pressure from the programme’s exploding surplus bank.

A global investment firm on Thursday announced the closing of one of the largest climate-focused funds to date, and will target investments in early- and growth-stage startups that drive timely decarbonisation.

A non-profit forest carbon measurement firm has launched a global radar-based alert system to detect tree-related disturbances, offering real-time information from forest in every biome worldwide.

Protests were a preview of planned marches in the city ahead of United Nations’ climate ambition summit on 20 September

Progressive lawmakers and climate activists rallied at the Capitol on Thursday to demand an end to fossil fuel usage, previewing a planned march in New York on Sunday ahead of the United Nations’ climate ambition summit on 20 September.

“Clearly, saving the planet is the most important issue facing humanity,” the Democratic senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, said. “But here’s the ugly and brutal truth: right now, humanity is failing. The planet is crying out for help.”

Continue reading...

What makes a great climate leader and why are we not seeing more of them? I’ve been searching for good examples of climate leaders. This is the subject of our new documentary, Climate Changers. Tim Flannery, Honorary fellow, The University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Many researchers are exploring high-tech ways to help reefs survive the climate crisis. But low-tech solutions like manually pulling out seaweed have a place too. Hillary Smith, Senior Research Officer, James Cook University David Bourne, Professor of Marine Biology, James Cook University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Rugby World Cup 2023 host France has launched a tender seeking offers for carbon credits to compensate for the emissions resulting from the ongoing tournament.

Winning images of the amazing parts of our Universe go on display in London.

The latest warning from climate experts points to the urgency of a fossil fuel phase-out

The climate is changing more quickly now than it has done for tens of millions of years. This was the blunt conclusion to the BBC’s recent Earth series, which sought to convey to viewers how cataclysmic the disruption caused by global heating could be. Chris Packham, its presenter, described the tipping points that were reached 56m years ago, when, over the course of a few thousand years, temperatures climbed by 5C. Fossil records from this period are one resource that modern scientists use when trying to predict the consequences of the much faster heating that is now under way.

Planetary boundaries, about which scientists this week issued an updated warning, are another tool for thinking about the environment. These are a set of parameters defined at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, led by Prof Johan Rockström, in 2009. They are limits within which changes to the Earth’s life support systems, which have been relatively stable for 10,000 years, can be considered manageable. Once the boundaries are breached, however, everything becomes much more extreme, unstable and threatening. As well as an attempt at quantifying the disruption that natural systems can withstand, the nine boundaries represented an attempt to broaden understanding of the risks. One key message was that global heating caused by greenhouse gases trapped in the atmosphere is not the only threat.

Continue reading...

Investment in the voluntary carbon market will tumble sharply in the next two years after a surge of money flooded in over the last two-and-a-half years when carbon credits prices hit a peak, according to research published on Thursday.

Lack of progress towards climate goals is undermining global efforts to tackle hunger, poverty, ill health, access to clean water and energy, and many other aspects of sustainable development, according to a UN report released Thursday.

The City of London Corporation has called for the UK to include marine biodiversity in its nature credits market as a “matter of urgency” as part of its ambition for the country to become a global nature finance centre, it has said.

A moratorium should be placed on the highly controversial practice of geoengineering to control climate change, while allowing for ongoing research into the possibilities of using solar radiation management given the magnitude of the problem and the need to prepare the ground for future generations, an expert body concluded in a report published Thursday.

Next week's summit, organised by UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres in New York, will provide an opportunity to hold the rich world to account for their poor record on climate finance and set the tone for core topics of discussion at COP28 in Dubai at the end of the year, a webinar heard Thursday.

Federal effort will focus on marginalized areas in all parts of country and aims to reduce extreme heat and benefit health

Hundreds of communities around the US will share more than $1bn in federal money to help them plant and maintain trees under a federal program that is intended to reduce extreme heat, benefit health and improve access to nature.

The US agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, will announce the $1.13bn in funding for 385 projects at an event on Thursday morning in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Continue reading...

A Brazilian fintech firm is aiming to raise R$300 million ($61 mln) for a second carbon credit-focused fund after the success of its first offering and hopes to benefit from the proposed emissions trading scheme in the country, a local media outlet reported Wednesday.

The durable carbon dioxide removal (CDR) market could grow to $135 billion by 2040 if the price of units can fall to $150 per tonne, according to projections made in a report this week from one of the world's largest consultancy firms.

The UN body responsible for guiding the Paris Agreement's carbon crediting mechanism made significant progress at this week's penultimate meeting, with observers noting they had never seen such consensus among the group, but ultimately failed to adopt final texts on methodological guidance after running out of time, leaving crunch discussions for the final meeting later this year.